The national caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi has been advised to take measures to ensure that the position of the national chairman of the party is zoned to the Southwest geo-political zone as preparations gather momentum for the party’s convention coming up on December 9 in Abuja.
Giving the advice in an interview with TUNDE THOMAS, former National Vice-Chairman of PDP, Chief Ishola Filani noted that fairness and equity demand that the Southwest, being the only zone that has not produced any occupant for the position since 1999 should be allowed to have the seat. Filani also spoke on other issues.
What’s your view on the forthcoming convention of the PDP where a new national chairman of the party is expected to emerge?
The convention will make or mar PDP. If PDP doesn’t get this convention right, and allow some people to disturb or disrupt peaceful conduct of the election, then we should all forget about PDP, that will be the end.
In this regard, the Senator Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee has a lot of role to play. Makarfi’s committee success at the Supreme Court where they got judgment against Ali Modu Sheriff was not as a result of any notable or special role the caretaker committee members played. Two factors were responsible for the PDP’s victory at the Supreme Court.
These are the doggedness of the PDP members who despite all the troubles and crises the party was going through refused to leave the party. Secondly, the facts of the case that favoured PDP itself which made it easier for PDP lawyers to argue and win the case.
It is known that the caretaker committee is being faced with the task of reforming the party, it is how successful they are in the arrangement that will make or mar the party. What are some of the issues confronting the caretaker committee, which it must apply wisdom to resolve?
The issues are these; zoning of the positions, Nigerians have come to adopt the idea of zoning in whatever they want to do, and luckily for us it has been working for us. The committee is shying away from taking an assertive decision, which I believe they can take and if they had taken, the hullabaloo over it would have died down before the convention.
How can they say they zoned the position of the chairman to the South as a whole? In PDP, there are six positions that each zone takes one. They are the President, Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker House of Representatives, National Chairman of the party and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Each of these positions goes to different zones.
But my worry and concern now is why is the party’s national caretaker committee having problem in distributing these positions equitably? The Presidential slot has already been zoned to the North, it follows therefore the vice-president comes to the South, now we don’t have a senate president, or speaker, House of representatives, and secretary to the government for now because we are not in government. But if we win elections and come into government, appropriate zones will now take these positions.
Of all these positions, each of the five geo-political zones in the country has occupied the position of national chairman of the party. The first person to occupy the position was from North central, and that was late Chief Solomon Lar. The North central has also produced Ahmadu Ali, and Senator Barnabas Gemade. The Northwest has produced Haliru Bello, while Bamanga Tukur, Adamu Mu’azu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff have all come from the Northeast. That is for the North.
In the South, you had Nwodo and Vincent Ogbulafor coming from the Southeast, while in the South south, Uche Secondus acted as the acting National Chairman of the party for over one year.
If this position of the national chairman is now zoned to the South, it is only the Southwest that has not occupied the position at all. Why can’t Makarfi-led national caretaker committee members be courageous enough and say let Southwest have it? The chairman of the caretaker committee, Makarfi was being unfair when he said there should be no micro-zoning for the chairmanship position. What he was saying in essence was that the position of PDP national chairman should not be micro-zoned to the Southwest. He was being very unfair to the Southwest.
One thing is this, much as people might want to say that members of the caretaker have done a good job, when they allow their attitude at this point in time to reflect their individual ambitions, their personal ambitions might not be realizable or achieved because PDP might have scattered and fallen into pieces.
We need to resolve this issue before going to our convention. PDP should make a pronouncement over this issue. When the position of chairman was zoned to the South before the Port Harcourt convention was aborted, a group of Southerners met and now zoned the position of national chairman to the Southwest but some of our people because of their personal ambition are now reneging on this earlier agreement. Some of the members of the caretaker committee led by Makarfi want to contest for the posts of president, vice-president and also occupy other positions, and this is why they can’t say the truth again. Now it is the interests of those who can support and sponsor them to realize their ambition that members of Makarfi-led national committee are protecting, and dancing to their tune, but if they are not careful this thing may boomerang.
In case of South South geopolitical zone, it has produced President, Vice-president and acting national chairman of the party, so naturally it ought to be the Southwest that has not occupied the position of national chairman of the party that should have it.
We should have it at the back of our mind that if we want cohesion in the party, the Southwest should be allowed to have it.
Now, let me emphasise this, whoever is saying he wants to contest presidential ticket from the Southwest is just wasting his time. Such a person is an enemy of the party. Why am I saying this? PDP has already zoned presidential ticket to the North, so why should anybody from the Southwest breach that agreement? Such a fellow that is nursing such an ambition just wants to destabilize the party. The PDP national caretaker committee led by Makarfi is being unfair to the Southwest.
On the issue of many aspirants coming out from the Southwest …
Cuts in … That is not an issue at all. As many aspirants as possible can come from the Southwest but delegates will now have the choice of picking one of them. The first important thing which leaders of the party must accept is that it is the Southwest that should be allowed to produce the next national chairman of PDP in the interest of equity, fairness and justice. I hope and pray that the powers that be should divorce themselves of their individual ambitions and do the right thing before it is late.
What are the traits and qualities you expect in whoever is going to emerge as the new PDP national chairman?
What we need is a very strong personality as the new national chairman of PDP. We need somebody who will be able to gather all the other officers together to fight as a virile opposition party within the next one year, so as to enable the party become strong enough to win back power in 2019.
We need somebody that is vocal and not timid. A charismatic and dynamic personality, who also possesses the aura to lead PDP back to its winning ways.
At a point, PDP board members from Southwest led by Chief Shaibu Oyedokun narrowed the number of aspirants from Southwest to three, namely: Chief Bode George, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, and Professor Tunde Adeniran, but other aspirants kicked, describing the action by the BOT as unconstitutional and undemocratic, what’s your take on that?
That action by the PDP BoT Southwest was unnecessary. It is not the Southwest that is the problem. It is the fact that the chairmanship seat was not zoned to a particular zone that is the problem. Whosoever conceived the pruning down the number of aspirants to three, they had good intention but that is not the solution to the problem. The solution to the problem is to allow the Southwest to produce the candidate for the position of PDP national chairman even where there are hundreds of aspirants from the Southwest, delegates will have the opportunity of making their own choice.
PDP can’t afford to have another crisis again, and this is why this issue should be handled carefully. I’m not only appealing to members of the caretaker committee, but also members of the party’s BoT and elders to persuade South south to allow Southwest to produce the next PDP national chairman.